Dispensing of liquids in volumes from picoliters to microliters is an essential operation in many areas of pharmaceutical and biology research, as well as in medical and veterinary diagnostics, forensics testing, and agricultural testing. Even within these fields, low-volume liquid dispensing is used for many different operations.
One stage of pharmaceutical research, during which low-volume liquid dispensing is important, is directed to determining the concentration of a compound needed to effectively attack or inhibit a target (e.g., a virus). Many different concentrations of the compound are created in containers, such as the wells of a microplate (also known as a “well plate”) to determine the effective concentration. Dispensing systems direct liquids into the wells. Serial dilution is applied to achieve a required concentration when the dispensing system is incapable of providing sufficiently small volumes of the compound.